AG

AG

Candidate

Kimberly Dudik

Raph Graybill

website

dudikformontana.com

raphgraybill.com

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/dudikformontana/

facebook.com/RaphforAG

Seeking MTPD Endorsement?

Yes

Yes

Do you consider yourself a progressive?

Yes

Yes

If elected will you join the Progressive Legislative Caucus?

Yes

Yes

How do you define progressive?

Progressive means someone who moves our state forward, making progress, dealing with issues that have been ignored for too long.

As a progressive, I am committed to equality, equity, justice, and a livable world for all people. The root word in progressive is “progress”—recognition of the urgency in progressives’ message, as well as the foundational idea that the work of social reform is never finished.

The progressive platform demands social, political, and economic change in tandem.

We progressives work for change both through the traditional political processes and through larger social movements.

We're skeptical of the given order and do not unthinkingly accept the ideological structures that promote or justify inequality and the status quo. Neo-liberal political and economic approaches have brought us to this pinnacle moment of a climate catastrophe, economic disaster, and healthcare fallout. We progressives must not show fealty to the current social and political conditions that brought us to this moment, and we must be unafraid to advocate for dramatic changes to the social, political, and economic order.

Progressives adopt intersectional approaches, recognizing the unique forms of inequality and discrimination that occur in the overlap between social class, race, gender, and sexual identity. Progressives are also committed to environmental justice, and to empowering the voices of young people.

The ambitious goals of our progressive platform do not mean that we are any less committed to winning in traditional political contests. Rather, progressives approach these contests unafraid to advocate for bold solutions, and with the view that candid and passionate advocacy for structural change will be more successful than copying conservative ideologies or watering-down progressive causes which only serves the entrenched wealthy interests and the status quo.

Are there specific progressive positions or issues you support or that you would like to champion?

I am running for Montana Attorney General because we deserve an Attorney General who will truly be the people’s attorney. As Attorney General I will
1. champion protection of citizens’ rights,
2. protect consumers, and
3. reform our criminal justice systems.

More details of these issues are as follows.
Protect our rights:
I will champion protection of citizens’ rights, including everything from protecting our right to health care, right to a clean and healthful environment, right to free and fair elections, and right to equality for all. I will use position to push for energy reform in Montana to move away from coal and grow more renewable energy.
I will fight for equal rights and use my office to push for ratification of the ERA. I will also expand on the work the Attorney General does regarding civil rights and discrimination, especially with the rise in hate crimes we have seen over the past 4 years.
I will monitor our elections and our right to vote to ensure they are proceeding fairly. I will be a vocal advocate of our right to vote and work with citizens and other governmental entities to ensure the right to vote is not violated. I will also propose legislation to require more transparency and truthfulness in election materials and limit the influence of dark money in our elections. I have a detailed plan on protecting our elections.
I will do more to give the Native American Community a voice within state government. We need a statewide leader who will prioritize working with our tribal nations, collaborating, and working together to solve the problems we face together. I will establish a formal Native American Affairs Office in the Attorney General's office to fully collaborate on these issues and improve these communities.
I will fight for our right to health care and push back against any attempt to roll back access to this right. I will also hold insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies accountable for treating citizens fairly and ensure they are not price-gouging or price-fixing insurance and pharmaceuticals.
I will fight enforce our right to a clean and healthful environment. I will will use my position to fight back against federal rollbacks to the EPA and hold polluters and corporate bad actors accountable. I will fight to keep our public lands in public hands and fight any attempts to sell them off.

Protect consumers:
I will be the independent watchdog we need. I will fight to vigorously protect consumers, making sure corporations whether they are drug companies or mining companies - do not hurt everyday Montana citizens. I have a detailed plan for how to hold drug companies accountable and lower the cost of prescription drugs.
I will continue to fight for affordable health care and protect Medicaid Expansion. I will hold drug companies accountable for their pricing and investigate them for price gouging and price fixing and fight any attempt to roll back ACA protections.

Reform our criminal justice system:
We need a fair, equitable, and just criminal justice system that works to get people out of the criminal justice system by providing help with mental health care, chemical dependency, housing, and employment.
I have implemented changes in these areas already by starting the only state-funded holistic defender program in the nation and reforming our criminal justice laws to so that they provide people a pathway our of the criminal justice system.
I would further progress in this area by increasing treatment courts, pretrial diversion programs, deferred prosecution programs, and advocating for additional mental health and chemical dependency treatment programs.
I would also further policies to adequately deal with the level of intrafamilial violence in our communities, especially that against women and children that has been underdressed for too long.

For decades, corporations and other wealthy interests have stealthily hijacked America’s legal system, to undermine the rights that working people in America fought and died for—the right to organize their labor, the expansion of suffrage and limits on money in our elections, the fundamental right of individual economic empowerment, environmental protections and the right to clean air and clean water, and so much more. With these rights under attack, and a complicit federal government and legal system that favors wealthy and corporate interests, our Attorney General in Montana must stand up for our values, but Tim Fox has been asleep for the last 8 years.

We have a real opportunity in 2020 to fundamentally reimagine what the Attorney General’s office means for working people—to forge a new balance between entrenched power and those without it. As provided in our progressive state constitution, the AG’s position is a structural check on power: on concentrated private economic power and on runaway government power that no longer works for people. Traditionally, state AGs played this balancing role. I’ll reinvigorate it, pursuing a progressive agenda to:

-Continue the fight against dark money, to ensure that our elections belong to people and not corporations or a wealthy few
-Stand up for privacy and net neutrality against big telecoms
-Implement, on day one, automatic voter registration through the Motor Vehicle Division
-Through litigation and enforcement, push back on the power of big pharmaceutical corporations to manipulate drug prices and steal from Montanans who need life-saving medications
-Pursue reforms in the criminal justice system that reduce needless incarceration, and empower Montanans to remain healthy, in the community, and, where possible, working
-Stand up to insurance companies and enforce consumer protection laws against abuses, particularly if our state auditor won’t
-Protect the privacy of a woman’s individual healthcare decisions, including the constitutional right to seek abortion care services without the harassment of the State
-Defend public education from privatization schemes
-Enforce Montana’s environmental laws and vindicate the Constitutional guarantee to a “clean and healthful environment for this and future generations”
-Protect Montana’s public lands from conservative schemes to privatize them for the wealthy
-Respect and partner with Montana’s native communities, ensuring fairness and a respect for tribal sovereignty in all dealings with the State of Montana—and stand up for Montana’s native communities where the federal government won’t
-Lead litigation to make the United States to recognize the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment

List ways you would like MTPD help.

field support, phone calls, fundraising support

I hope to partner with MT Progressive Dems to build a grassroots statewide organization to bring new voters into our movement, and communicate with independent voters, moderate Democrats, and even Republicans about the values we share and the policies that those values have led us, as progressives, to support.

As a younger Montanan, I also hope to mobilize other younger Montanans to get involved in the political process. I am excited by MT Progressive Dems' express organizational commitment to lifting up the voices of young people in Montana. I believe that we can work together to organize young people to help us win both elections and the broader social movement that our vision of change will require.